The Last Place [Audio Cassette]

Laura Lippman (Author), Barbara Rosenblat (Narrator)

Product Details

• Audio Cassette
• Publisher: RecordedBooks (1999)
• ISBN-10: 1436108969
• ISBN-13: 978-1436108966
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Laura Lippman was a reporter for twenty years, including twelve years at The (Baltimore) Sun. She began writing novels while working fulltime and published seven books about "accidental PI" Tess Monaghan before leaving daily journalism in 2001. Her work has been awarded the Edgar ®, the Anthony, the Agatha, the Shamus, the Nero Wolfe, Gumshoe and Barry awards. She also has been nominated for other prizes in the crime fiction field, including the Hammett and the Macavity. She was the first-ever recipient of the Mayor's Prize for Literary Excellence and the first genre writer recognized as Author of the Year by the Maryland Library Association. Ms. Lippman grew up in Baltimore and attended city schools through ninth grade. After graduating from Wilde Lake High School in Columbia, Md., Ms. Lippman attended Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism. Her other newspaper jobs included the Waco Tribune-Herald and the San Antonio Light. Ms. Lippman returned to Baltimore in 1989 and has lived there since.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Mystery With a Mystery, April 28, 2003

By 

FictionAddiction.NET - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Place: A Novel (Hardcover)

From the beginning page you are introduced to the killer and the knowledge that he is watching someone again stays in the front of your mind as you get to know him better. His history and his thoughts are sprinkled throughout the book and lead you to "The Last Place."

Tess is a private investigator with a past that haunts her. Her ex-boyfriend was killed years prior and she continues to suffer from occasional nightmares, reliving his death.

She has issues with anger management, which are portrayed quite well when she gets a little revenge on a potential child molester. She is arrested and sentenced to anger management counseling.

Tess's wealthy friend, Whitney, offers her a private investigator assignment which involves reviewing old, unsolved domestic abuse murder cases in order to help bring about lobbying for funding and training for small town cops handling domestic abuse situations. Whitney is part of a group of several non profit foundations that have joined together and are in search of ways to reduce the number of domestic-violence homicides in their state. Though Tess's old archenemy, Luisa O'Neal, is somewhat involved in the group, Tess accepts the assignment with the understanding that Luisa is not an active member of the board.

There is a list of five unsolved cases for Tess to investigate. She was not hired to search for the killer but rather to check into the specifics of the police investigations on each file.

Initially, the cases do not seem connected but then Tess begins to question whether or not they are in some way. She always begins to wonder if Luisa O'Neal had more involvement in this project than Tess was told about, or anyone was told, for that matter. Soon Tess is questioning everything and everyone looking for the link.

You will find yourself flipping back through the pages you've already read, checking details, looking for confirmation of the places the clues are leading you. Just when you think you're sure you know who the killer is, another clue is added that doesn't quite fit in and you are sent on your search again. You will be guessing until the end.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Keeps getting better!, February 23, 2005

By 

Raymond M. Rose "Rainman" (Pottstown, PA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Last Place (Mass Market Paperback)

Laura knows her stuff. I'm not talking about reporting or the ins and outs of a being a working PI but writing novels. Not just novels but damn good novels. Here, Laura knows her stuff. Very, very well.

The Last Place is excellent. If you've never read her before, you are going to be surprised. Actually, if you've never read her before I would say go back to the beginning with Baltimore Blues because you need to read the progression of her character. Tess doesn't start off this tough as nails, sharp as a tack PI but as a reporter looking for work. Not only will you see the progression of the character but also the writer. Laura keeps getting better. With every book she takes what she learned from the last one and builds upon it. Her narration gets stronger, her descriptions more detailed, her plot tighter, and her books keep getting better. Laura knocks me side the head with each new novel and The Last Place is no exception.

Actually, it's better than that. I put this book down with a sense that I had just read something amazing and strong and the tip of an iceberg. I put this book down very pleased and for that I quite indebted to her. Thank you Ms. Lipman.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Character, action and puzzle together, January 27, 2004

By 

booksforabuck "BooksForABuck" (Long Beach, CA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The Last Place: A Novel (Hardcover)

It started out as a routine investigation for Baltimore private investigator Tess Monaghan. A nonprofit group hired her to look into several small-town unsolved murders as part of a study to determine whether the police had done a good job, and whether domestic violence was at the root. But soon she discovered something unexpected--a link between two of the cases, which were supposedly chosen at random.

Tess meets up with an unlikely ally--a former Toll Facilities cop, Carl Dewitt, who is obsessed with one of the murders. When they compare notes, they realize they're dealing with an extraordinarily clever serial killer--and that Tess is his real target, but for an unknown reason.

As Tess and Carl investigate, sometimes cooperating with the state police, sometimes defying it, they start to realize that they're following a script only the killer knows, and he's always one step ahead of them. As she struggles with the fear and the mind games, Tess is also battling her own demons, forced on her by a court-ordered anger-management psychiatrist.

Author Laura Lippman's novel has that rare combination of character, action, intellectual puzzle and flashes of humor that blend for a first-rate mystery. This is not a feel-good book, though. It made me a little sad.